75 responses to Accounts and returns

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Alistair Schofieldsaid on July 22, 2011 at 6:56 am

I am a Director of two relatively small limited companies. We use a full accounting package to run all of our accounts and payroll but have to employ an accountant at the end of each year to translate our comprehensive accounts into the format required by the Government.

It strikes me that the process could be simplified greatly and the cost burden on small businesses reduced if small companies could be treated differently.

My suggestion is that Government liaise with the producers of software packages such as Sage and Quickbooks to simplify the reporting requirements such that those packages would be capable of producing the completed account submissions.

I believe this would be eminently achievable as those packages currently do just that for the submission of VAT returns and calculation of Income Tax and NI for employees.

As part of this I further suggest that a limit be set below which capital equipment purchase could be written off in full at the time of purchase (e.g. £10k in each year) thereby avoiding the complexity of depreciation.

These changes would reduce the accounting cost burden on small businesses and bring the annual return in line with the way in which small companies measure themselves i.e. money in less money out.